Re: Internet access via TV

["Mark Harrison (Groups)" <mph@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 2005-10-25 at 10:55 +0000, lethariotbass wrote:

> As part of an installation I have been asked to provide (potential)
> simultanious internet access from each TV in the build. First thought
> was to use something like the VIA set-top box connecting as a thin
> client to a Node 0 server.

That works, but is a bit of an overkill way to go. If you're rolling out
Via STBs, then you can just have a Linux build dropping into a
full-screen (kiosk mode) Firefox.

It's easy to lock this down (if you need to), and save the price of
local hard-drives by having the Linux build booting over the network
instead of locally.

The advantage of this is that you get a full-featured web browser, plus
the ability to download components. In order to pull this off, however,
you need to do a bit of a fiddle getting the Linux distribution to
network boot a minimal build and then immediately create a ram drive
into which it copies all the applications.

Advantage: Clean installation each reboot solves support headaches.

Disadvantage: You need to download plugins EACH TIME you book, unless
you pre-install a set on the server (Flash, PDF, etc.)


There are a few STBs that provide so-called web access, but they tend to
be a bit clunky, and not provide the rich plugin environment people
expect.

Regards,

Mark